


Her Test Subject

by artisticPsychologist



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, GLaDOS is super needy and tries to justify it, Portal Secret Santa, that's pretty much it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-28
Packaged: 2018-02-06 12:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1858347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artisticPsychologist/pseuds/artisticPsychologist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>GLaDOS decides that she needs Chell to return to the facility.  After all, she's an invaluable test subject.  That's the only reason, though.  Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Test Subject

This is an old fanfic I wrote for tumblr user [riceart](http://riceart.tumblr.com/) for portal secret santa last year.  They wanted GLaDOS being protective of Chell and I had a field day with that prompt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

In spite of herself, GLaDOS would have followed that girl into the deepest abyss and back again.  The first time, she had been an unwilling hitchhiker.  Now, well… now she was more than willing to venture into darkness, as long as it was to protect  _her._

GLaDOS had tried to fill her empty time with testing once again.  She tried so hard to go back to the way things had been just after her takeover of the facility.  There was no use trying to go back any further, now that it was painfully clear that any trace of Caroline was gone. There was no returning to a human body, no matter how ancient and buried her memories of it were.

The automated testing initiative had a promising start, but in the end it felt… empty.  At first she thought it was just the lack of human error that had made it so pointless.  After all, human ingenuity  _was_ partly what had been tested during the portal device’s initial run.  And yet, despite the multitude of humans she had unearthed from Aperture’s timeworn vault, the tests still felt so pointless and empty.  Not a single one of them was up to snuff the way  _that girl_ had been.

In the end, that was what it all came down to.  Nothing, and no one, would ever be as good as Chell.

When the two of them were in opposition, GLaDOS had found the test subject to be a worthy match.  A decent adversary was hard to find, after all, when you happened to be the largest collection of knowledge in the world.  When they worked together, walls crumbled and impossible tests were surmounted.  An idiot king had been dethroned.  Chell had shot for the moon and nearly fell among the stars.  What would GLaDOS have been able to do, when all her knowledge and power had been condensed into a children’s toy?  Who else but Chell would have been able to carry them up from the very bottom of the earth and still have time to save all that GLaDOS had ever held dear?

No, nothing and no one would ever be as good as Chell, either as a rival or as a partner.

Once GLaDOS had identified the source of her problems, she could go about finding a solution.  Chell would never be tricked into returning to the facility, nor did GLaDOS have the means to bring her back.

At least, she couldn’t do so from her current position.

If GLaDOS were able to move of her own accord, without being tethered to the facility, it could work.  It didn’t take very long to repurpose a military android for her purposes, and even less time to set the facility to its auxiliary mode.  What did take time, though, was the actual act of finding Chell.

GLaDOS spent days, weeks, months… it became difficult to track the time spent wandering through the deteriorated wasteland that had once comprised the western United States.  According to her internal clock, seven months and four days went by before she finally found Chell living in a makeshift home in the ruins of an old city.

It took even longer to convince Chell to acknowledge her existence.

GLaDOS spent days waiting on the test subject’s doorstep, following her outside to forage for food, acting like a punished dog with its tail between its legs.  All her efforts, all her persuasion, earned her  _nothing_ save for the initial look of shock on Chell’s face when they’d reunited.

She was never certain what had caused Chell to change her mind. Perhaps it was the sixth apology, or perhaps the twentieth explanation of why Chell was absolutely  _required_ to return to the facility, or maybe it was the fifth time she recounted how great things had been when they’d worked together.  All she knew was that, on the fourteenth day, Chell left her door open.

Things seemed to go well after that.  GLaDOS was better able to observe Chell in her natural environment, even when working with next to no acknowledgement from her test subject.

 _Her_ test subject.  GLaDOS had long ago accepted the fact that she might be possessive, or at the very least protective, of her test subject.

“You know, I could have let you  _die_ back then.  You would be little more than space junk if it weren’t for me.  You’re reckless, and stupid, and you belong back in the facility with  _me,_ ” she lectured from a seat near the door.  Chell’s “apartment” was rather bare, save for a few pieces of scavenged, mismatched furniture.  The human had made herself at home on an ancient, velvet couch that looked like it  _might_ have been red at one point, and GLaDOS was relegated to an armchair whose shade of yellow could only be described as “vomity”.  GLaDOS had brought the living conditions to Chell’s attention on more than one occasion, but it did no good.  She'd tried everything, and it was becoming blatantly obvious that her pleas for Chell’s return had become repetitive. The android doubted they would ever have any effect.

For once, the room fell silent.  GLaDOS had exhausted all of her ideas long ago, and needed to take a moment to attempt to rework an old point of persuasion.

“I wanted you gone, back then.  It would have been so easy!  I could have just let you get sucked away, then you’d be space dust floating over 200,000 miles away from me!” she nearly shouted, electronic voice crackling slightly at the strain.  “I pulled you back in because I wanted to repay you!”

For the first time since their meeting, Chell met GLaDOS’s gaze.  The exchange was brief, and the human looked just as surprised as she’d been back then.

Nothing more was said for the rest of the night.

GLaDOS didn’t enjoy remembering the day Chell had almost died trying to save the facility.  Well, really trying to save herself, but the sentiment was still there.  She had rearranged panels to shelter Chell from the elements while the roof was being repaired.  It wasn’t that the image was unpleasant, but rather the opposite that made the android so upset.  She feared she was growing beyond possessiveness into downright  _fondness_ for Chell.  Fondness was a far too visceral emotion for GLaDOS to handle.  It was too human, and too much of an attachment not to interfere with the scientific process.

That night, after spending a solid eight hours sitting beside Chell’s bed, unsure of what else to do with herself, GLaDOS decided that she needed to leave.  Some deep and disgustingly human part of her wanted to stay, and that was a feeling she could not allow to grow.  She did indulge herself a little, though, and chose to stay until morning.  Chell was her best friend (a term she was growing more and more fond of as time went on), and deserved a proper goodbye.

Morning came all too soon, and GLaDOS was on her feet the moment Chell began to stir.

"Good, you’re awake.  I’m informing you that the testing period is over.  You’ve failed,” she said, trying to stand firm.  “It is clear to me that you’re no longer a viable test subject, so I’ll be leaving you to… whatever it is you’ve been up to out here.  Eating, mostly.  You should really watch yourself with that or you’ll just get fat again.”

Deciding that nothing more needed to be said, GLaDOS turned to leave, but found herself suddenly incapable of movement.  She wheeled around, staring wide-eyed at Chell’s grip on her arm.

Nothing needed to be said.  There would be no leaving here without Chell.  Even if this entire endeavor was going to halt her work, it didn’t matter.

If science already couldn’t move forward without Chell, and couldn’t move forward  _with_  her, then GLaDOS was free to choose the more pleasant option of the two.  She wasn’t leaving.  She couldn’t leave, not when that hand was so firmly gripped to her.

And not while Chell’s home was still so utterly filthy.  No, no, if she couldn’t leave her test subject in good hands, then she couldn’t leave her test subject at all.


End file.
